The United States and Afghan President Hamid
Karzai traded fresh recriminations Monday after failing to put a lid on a row
over election fraud which is tearing at their uneasy alliance.

Karzai reignited a controversy which is frustrating the White House
in a reported meeting with Afghan lawmakers and refused to back down
from claims that foreigners helped to rig Afghan elections in an
interview with the BBC.

"The remarks are troubling and the substance of the remarks is simply
not true," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, following the
latest Karzai outbursts, just a week after President Barack Obama's
surprise visit to
Kabul.

Another senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
Obama's administration was struggling to understand the motivation
behind Karzai's recent comments.

"Up to a point, we understand that there are things that leaders will
say in their own countries for domestic consumption."

But as for Karzai's latest remarks, "it was a head-scratcher," the
official said.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Karzai had told
lawmakers that the United States was interfering with Afghan affairs and
that the Taliban would become a legitimate resistance movement if it
did not stop.